Crisp DX Agenda

Crisp County Data Exchange Project

Meeting Minutes

September 28, 2005

The Meeting was held at the Crisp County Courthouse located at 210 Seventh Street South, Cordele, GA 31015-4217. Judge Pridgen called the meeting to order at 10:05am.

Judge Pridgen explained that the main reason for meeting today was to demonstrate the Crisp County Data Exchange System. He said that this was the first phase of the pilot “POC” proof of concept project. Lee Hampton asked everyone at the meeting to explain the company or agency where they work. There were representatives from CJCC and also a number of vendor representatives present at the meeting.

Minutes for Prior Meetings – Corrections and Approval :

The minutes were approved.

Crisp County DX System Demonstration :

Lee Hampton explained that Metatomix is the vendor who has worked with the group on the “POC” proof of concept. The proof of concept has been an experiment to see if the technology will actually work as intended. He said that the object was to start small and grow. It would be a lot better to have a small success than try and tackle a project that is too large all at once. The “POC” concentrated on automating arrest warrants which was actually implemented and working in production as of September 9 th . This process was chosen since it would allow all of the participating agencies to take part in the first phase of the project.

The proof of concept was able to integrate the arrest warrant procedure for the following Crisp County agencies – Sheriff's office, Magistrate Court, Superior Court Clerk's office and judge's offices, District Attorneys office, and Public Defender's office. Currently the Cordele Police Department had wanted to participate but the costs were too high to include them in the first phase of the project. It was decided that they may have an opportunity to join in the project at a later date.

The representatives from each of the agencies demonstrated the flow of the arrest warrant in the new system. Each of the agencies demonstrated using their actual live system and explained what new features each of their vendors needed to add to make the system work.

Lee Hampton encouraged people to ask questions during the demonstration. Bill Holland asked if it would be possible to put the JIEM model that was used for the first phase of this project on the Crisp DX website. Lee Hampton said that yes we could put all of the models on the website. It was pointed out that the JIEM modeling tool was extremely useful in narrowing down and identifying the necessary data exchanges.

Judge Pfeiffer said that we are actually still running parallel and although the warrant system has been automated that the hard copy of the incident report is still being sent to each of the agencies. This is important to verify that the exchanges and information are accurate during the implementation phase.

Rick Malone pointed out that the Metatomix program is the middleware program running on a Windows server currently located at the PAC office in Atlanta. There wasn't a need to purchase a significant amount of hardware for the project.

Bill Holland asked about the Justice XML overhead problems that he has known to exist with other systems. Meka from Metatomix addressed the technical question and said that the middleware uses a subset of the Justice XML and therefore they have avoided the challenges with the overhead problems.

A question was asked as to where the encoding and decoding is actually done. Meka answered that the middleware converts SQL to Global XML and the conversions are all done by the middleware. Ray Porter said that as a project like this is expanded that the middleware is scalable and multiple servers can be deployed to split up the workload.

Judge Pfeiffer explained that the Magistrate court system is a new ICON system and has worked out well for the project.

There was a question regarding security of information being transferred over the internet. It was explained that all of the data transferred is encrypted using 128-bit encryption with a third party certificate authority. Judge Pridgen stated that Metatomix has a large project in Florida for their Supreme Court. They have had to be very careful about security as well.

John Myers asked if the system had the capability of connecting to the agencies and for each of the agencies to update information back to the source. It was explained that the system definitely has this ability but for this “POC” that capability was limited and that right now only the arrest warrants have been automated.

Dr. Holland stated that he thought people who try to do everything all at once run into numerous problems. There was a lot of positive feedback from the group that the system has been successful since the scope was limited to the arrest warrant. Ray Porter said that it makes a lot more sense to work on the project in parts and break it down to make sure each part is working correctly before moving forward.

Lunch was provided by the Superior Court Clerk's office. After the break, it was planned that the team members will continue the meeting with the representatives from CJCC to discuss future plans and budget funding considerations.

Discuss Project With CJCC Reps And Get Feedback :

Terri Fisher said that the project looks very good. Joe Hood said that it was actually more than what he had expected. He didn't realize that the project would be in production with live data.

Judge Pridgen asked about the needs to maintain the system. He stressed the importance of funding to sustain the project for the long haul. It is important not to rely on grants to sustain the maintenance an annual licensing. Rick Malone stated the importance to expand the project to include the additional three counties in the Cordele Circuit. It should not just be a Crisp County project. CJCC's interest would be in the ability to replicate the project to other counties and other circuits in the state.

Joe Hood offered assistance to review the RFP required for additional grant funding. The next CJCC meeting is scheduled for the end of October and that the possibility for additional funding is very positive. Lee Hampton brought up the fact that Metatomix is the leading vendor and that they have experience in Florida whereas a lot of the other vendors don't have actual implementations. Lee Hampton said that Metatomix is extremely interested in working on a state-wide justice integration system in Georgia.

Dr. Holland stated that the capability for the local circuits to manage their own logins would be important. Meka addressed these issues and stated that the Metatomix system uses a gateway approach with role-based security.

Judge Pridgen pointed out that Georgia has a different court system from the state of Florida. He noted that Georgia does not have a unified court system.

Nolan Martin stated the importance at the local level of reducing redundancy and having a more efficient system which should drive the project forward.

Lee Hampton said that the project has had a few problems. Joel McLendon who has been able to dedicate all of his time to the project has taken another position and that now it is very necessary to find a replacement for him. The group needs to have a project manager who can dedicate all of their time to the project and move the project forward. Lee also said that during the project that sometimes it was difficult to make the vendors understand the importance of the project. It was discovered that the most effective way to deal with the vendors is to have each of the agencies who are the vendor's clients actually stress the importance of the project.

Pete Chambers said that it would be a good idea to have a certification process for a vendor to show that the vendor is in compliance with the XML standards.

Rick Malone suggested that when the system grows that it would be a voluntary system and to allow agencies to participate and not dictate participation. He believes that the benefits of being part of the system will prove effective in showing the agencies the need to be part of the system. Judge Pridgen stated that it is still important to include the Cordele Police Department in the current system in Crisp County if at all possible.

The second CJCC grand request that was denied was discussed. Joe Hood indicated that with the progress that has been made with the POC that we had a very good chance of receiving additional grant funds. The PAC council and the GPDSC council have both been very supportive and will jointly contribute the $100K funds required for the 75/25 match.

The details of the grant funding were discussed and it was decided that the RFP would need to be sent out in order to qualify for federal grant funding.

Project Future And Next Steps (Ownership, Funding, RFP, etc.) :

Jean Rogers said that she thought it is very important to complete the project for Crisp County and include the additional data exchanges to make the system currently being used a completed project. Rick Malone brought up the fact that although it is important to complete Crisp County that PAC and GPDSC as state agencies look at the project as a circuit project. He said that it is very important to implement the additional three counties into the project. The group discussed both of these implementation strategies and decided that both are important. At the next meeting, the details of exactly how to proceed will be discussed. It was agreed that two teams will need to be created. One to work on the completion of Crisp County and the other to work on the necessary MOUs and evaluate the cost of bringing on board the additional three counties.

Joe Hood said that he would like to have a GCIC technical advisor for the RFP. CJCC's meeting is scheduled for Oct. 19, 20 and 21 and the committee that votes on the grants will discuss this project. Rick Malone said that it would be best if the RFP would be ready by Nov. 1 st . Lee Hampton said that the RFP would be polished and sent to Joe Hood and he and Bill Holland would review it.

Discuss Meeting For 2 nd System Demonstration :

The team discussed the need for a 2 nd system demonstration. The three other counties, county commissioners and other interested parties would be invited. Judge Pridgen said that he thought it would be a good idea to issue an invitation from the two Superior Court Judges – Judge Pridgen and Judge Chastain. It was agreed that the demo will be scheduled for October 18, 2005 at 10am. Jean Rogers will organize the invitations and request the names of any additional people who should be invited from the members of the group. Jean confirmed that the courtroom would be available.

Other Business :

The group members discussed that it would be necessary for the demo equipment to be set up the day before the demo.

Future Meeting :

The next meeting will be held at the Crisp County Courthouse located at 210 Seventh Street South, Cordele, GA 31015-4217 on October 18, 2005 at 10:00am.

Judge Pridgen adjourned the meeting at 2:10pm.

Present At The Meeting :

Judge Pridgen

Judge Pfeiffer

Mary Jo Cox

Nolan Martin

Rick Malone

Jean Rogers

Lee Hampton

Marla Kosier

Jay Harrell

Joel McLendon